Tea With a Friend Painting

I am a visual artist, born on the vest coast of Norway surrounded by high mountains where I liked the speed of downhill skiing in the winter and swimming in the deep fjords in the summer. I moved to Finland in 1990 where I still have my life and work. These two countries are close to each other, but the nature is very different. The forest in Finland is a place where I find peace and inspiration. In autumn I love to wander around and collect blueberries and muschrooms. Even at the cottage in the arhipelago it’s easy to find inspiration for my paintings. What can be more facinating than the greenery coming out of the dark soil in early spring? All the beautiful colors on the leaves on a crisp autumn day, the patterns on stones and stems, weather bitten colors on an old cottage… As a little girl I used things found in the nature or by the sea, to create my own little fantasy world. To see a blank surface triggered something in me, so even walls in our home got some decorations. At the age of 12 I decorated a door at our school. This old village school is today a museum and the door is still there. I studied to become a Florist at young age, it was a way to be creative with form and colors as well. I attended several competitions in the field and became the Florist Champion in Trondheim, Norway, three years in a row. At the same time I even studied graphic design. I guess that the wiewer of my paintings can see my history in my paintings. The nature, the botanicals and the graphic clear forms. The inspiration for my paintings is found all around me, I just have to go out and just look at all the wonders.